ABC News: Sarah Palin Supports Trump's Birther Efforts

ABC News: George's Bottom Line: Sarah Palin Supports Trump's Birther Efforts
John Berman Reports:

Donald Trump has at least one high profile supporter when it comes to his loud and frequent questioning of the circumstances of President Obama’s birth: Sarah Palin.

On the “Judge Jeanine” show on Fox News, the former Alaska governor said, "I appreciate that the Donald wants to spend his resources on something that so interests him and so many Americans, you know more power to him.”

For Palin, who is a paid contributor to Fox News, this seems to be a shift in her opinions on the so-called “birther” issue, and its relevance.

In a February appearance before the Long Island Association in New York, Palin was asked if she questions either the president's religious faith or the location of his birth.

"I don't and those are distractions," she responded in February. "It's distracting. It gets annoying. Let's stick with what really matters."

But now, after Trump has been able to gain some media focus with his birther ideology, she seems willing to "stick" with something else, even if she still concedes that she believes the president was born in Hawaii.

"I think that he was born in Hawaii,” Palin told Judge Jeanine, “because there was the birth announcement put in the newspaper. But obviously there is something there that the president doesn't want people to see on that birth certificate, that he sees going to great lengths to make sure it isn't shown. And that's perplexing for a lot of people."

The president has released a "certificate of live birth," a shorter document that carries the same legal weight as a birth certificate in Hawaii. Non-Partisan watch dog groups who have seen this document say they believe it definitively proves the president was born in Hawaii. However, the president has not released his so-called “longform” birth certificate, and this has been the source of many conspiracy theories. Though an official in Hawaii has stated she has seen the full birth certificate and says it does verify the president was born there.